Improvement in lithographic-printing presses



UNITED nSTATE EEIC.

EDWARD s. ROYNTON, OE BROOKLYN, NEW YoRK,Ass1eNOR To HIMSELF AND CHARLESPARKER, OE MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN LITHOGRAPHIC-PRINTING PRESSES.

1 Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 116,406, dated June27, 1871.

4 in Lithographie-Printing Press; and I do hereby declare the following,when taken in connection with the accompanying` drawing and the lettersof reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the same, and which said drawing constitutes part of thisspecification and represents, in

Figure l, a side view; Fig. 2, the reverse side 5 Fig. 3, the front ordelivery side;- Fig. 4, atransverse central section; and in Figs. 5 tol1, inclusive, detached views, illustrating the operation of thegripers.

This inventionrelates to an improvement in lithographie-printin gpresses, but is al so appli cable to zincographic or plate-printing, theobject being the construction of a rotary press for this class ofprinting, parts of which are applicable to other printing-presses5 andthe invention consists: First, in arranging the stone-holder in thecylinder so that it may be adjusted to raise or lower ythe surface ofthe stone, as the case may be.

Second, in an adjustable weight combined with the cylinder so as tocounterbalance the stone. Third, in the manner of distributing the inkand dampenin g the surface, so that bot-h are performed while thecylinder is revolving. Fourth, in a mechanism for operating the gripers,so that at one revolution of the impression cylinder the gripers operateto grasp the paper, and at the next revolution to discharge the paper.

A is the frame of the machine; B,'the shaft of the printing-cylinder,supported in adjustable bearings B1, and caused to revolve, by theapplication of power to the pulley B2, on the drivingshaft B3, power atthe same time being comuninicated to the shaft B4 for theimpression-cylininder C, the cylinders and driving-shaft being gearedtogether and turned in the usual manner for common rotary presses, theimpression-cylinder making two revolutions to each revolution of theprinting-cylinder. D is the bed upon which the stone D' is arranged, andis formed with an inclined ledge, d, upon one edge and with asimilar-shaped clamp, d', at the other edge, so that the stone (itsedges being first beveled) is placed upon the bed D, one of the bevelededges lying .under the ledge d, and the clamp d, bea-rvents alldifficulties which might arise from clamping the stone rigidly betweenthe. metal surfaces.

The bed D which supports the stone is adjusted in such relative positionto the periphery of the cylinder that the face of the stone may bedressed to present a surface corresponding to and making a part of theperiphery of the cylinder, and this surface may be turned, finished, orground o'b'y the revolution of the cylinder without removing the stonefrom its bed; but to do this an adjustment of the stone is necessary tothrow it out beyond the natural surface of the cylinder, and thisadjustment I accomplish by arranging the bed D upon a cylindrical orother suitably-formed holder, E, extending radially across the cylinder;and this holder is supported in a frame, F, formed Within the cylinder,in which are arranged adjusting-screwsff, so that by turning the saidscrews the bed D may be thrown oiit or in, as may be required fordierent thicknesses of stone, or for grinding ofi' the surface, or foradjustment of the stone for any purpose. To counter-balance the weightof the stone and its bed I arrange within the holder E a weight, G, upona shaft, G', the said weight being fitted with a thread corresponding tothe thread on the shaft, so that, by turning the said shaft (which isdone by means of the head g) the weight G ,ismoyed toward or from thecenter until it fully counterbalances the stone and its bed. H is theinking or first table; H', a distrbnting or second table. I is theink-buntain; I1, the iountain-roll 5 and I2, the ductor-roll; the saidductor-roll, operated by the cam I3 through the lever' I, turning therock-shaft I5, to which, by means of the rod 16, the ductor-roll isadjustably attached, as seen in Figs. 2 and 4, so that when the firsttable H is presented at that point it will, taking the ink from thefountain-roll, carry it to the hiking-table H, and is adjusted so as todeposit upon the table the requisite quant-ity of This is done byforming a. cam upon the head of the printing-cylinder, as denoted inbroken lines, Fig. 4, so that the raised portion of the cam will,

at the proper time, operate upon and so as teslightly raise the rolls.The rolls 3 and 3 are made light by forming them from wood or hollowcylinders of metal, and they are pressed against the table and stone bysecondary or gravitation rollers 4. All the rollers are arranged inslotted bearings S, inclined so that the rollers 4, by their owngravity, rest and bear upon the hiking-rollers 5 and this pressure maybe adjusted by making the secondary rollers heavier or lighter by addingto or taking from the said secondary rollers the temporary weights. Bythis construction I am enabled to arrange the distrilmting-rolls belowthe center of the printing-cylinder, the slots S being curved up, asdenoted in Fig. 4, to bring the bearings of the secondary rolls so farabove the bearings of the inking-rolls as to force the inking-rolls upagainst the cylinder below the center. The secondary rollers serve asadditional distributers, their surface rolling upon the surface of theinking-rolls. Both the inliing and dist-ributing-cylinders may, ifdesirable, be given a transverse movement to more equally distribute theink. Upon opposite sides ofthe machine, in bearings similar to thebearin gs of the distributing-rolls, I arrange dampening-cylinders 5 5,more or less in number. rlhese dampening-cylinders are formed hollow soas to receive a quantity of water, and are perforated upon theirsurface, and the surface wound or covered with linen or other similariibrous or textile materia-l, so that the water within the cylinder willpermeate entirely through the whole body of the covering and give to thesurface the requisite moisture for dampening the stone. Seconda-rycylinders 6, corresponding to the primary cylinders 5, are applied, inlike manner as the secondary cylinders, upon the inking-rolls, and thesesecoi'ldary cylinders may be made hollow and perforated so as to containa supply ofwater and thus dampen the primary rolls from the surface, orboth may be used in combination, dampening the primary cylinders fromthe inside and outside. Therefore. at the commencement of the operation,the stone i passes the dampening-cylinders, receiving upon its surfacethe necessary moisture.'` At the same time the inking-table H has beensupplied with ink and passes on, coating the inking-rolls 5 the secondtable H', following, thoroughly distributes the ink. The stone thencomes in contact with the inking-rolls 3 and receives the ink, (theimpression havin g been previously made or taken upon the stone,) and isprepared for printing, the dampening-rolls being raised asthedistributing and inking rolls pass so as not to come in contact, andthe distributing-rolls 3 also raised as the stone passes. Theimpression-cylinder G is constructed with gripers h so as, at the propertime, to receive the paper from the table L and draw it down between thesurface of the impression-cylinder and the stone. The gripers, stillholding the paper, carry it around after it has received the impression,and deliver it to the iiy L1. The said iiy L1 is brought into positionat the proper time to receive the printed paper and carry it onto t-hereceiving-table L2. L2, which must necessarily be at the front of themachina comes in such position as to interfere with the operator gettingat the rolls in front. It is, therefore, necessary that the table beremoved, and to do this I pivot the table, by an arm, Z, to a stud, l',so that it may be turned around the said pivot to take it away from thefront of the press, the said pivot insuring its return to the properposition.

The impression-cylinder is here representedas half the diam eter oftheprinting-cylinder; hence at one revolution of the printing-eylinder thepaper is taken in, printed, and thrown out; at the next revolutionasecoud sheet ist-aken, and so on bntit is only essential that theimpression-cylinder should be of a diameter equal to a component part ofthe cylinder, as three to one, four to one, more or less. Thearrangement of the gripers hin the cylinder C and their ope 1ation areshown in Figs. 5 to 1l, inclusive, on a reduced scale. The gripers arearranged upon a shaft, h, longitudinally in a recess in the cylinder C,as seen in Figs. 5 and 6,'and at the end ofthe cylinder, on the saidshaft la', is arranged a slotted shoe, 7. (See Figs. 7 and S.) Thecylinder revolves in the direction denoted bythe arrows, and when thegripers are open the shoe is in the position shown in FiO. 7, but whenclosed is in the position shown in Fig. 8. On the back of the shoe Iform projections 8 head of the cylinder, so that the said projections,in either direction, striking against the ledge, as seen in Figs. 7 andS, form stops to arrest the in broken lines, is formed upon the back ofthe shoe, resting upon a lever, 9, the said lever supported by a spring,l0, so that when the shoe is in the position seen in Fig. 7 the leverwill bear against one side of the cam, and when turned past the center'in the other direction the spring, operating upon the lever, will throwthe shoe to the other extreme, and vice versa. In this movement of theshoe the lever is depressed, as denoted in broken lines, Fig. 7. To thusoperate the shoe two studs, 1lY and l2, are arranged through the frameof the machine so as to alternately stand in the path ot' said shoe, andare operated by a (,louble-acting cam, l'i, as seen in Figs. 9, l0, andll. Starting then with the shoe in the position seen in Fig. 7, thegripers open and, ready to receive the paper, the stud ll is thrown in,as seen in Fig. l0. The shoe strikes the said stud ll, as seen in Fig.7, and passing on throws the shoe over into the positiony seen ThisVtable .t

8, corresponding to a ledge or iiange upon the throw of the shoe. AV-shaped cam, as denoted in Fig. S--that is, c-losed on the paper, asdenoted in Fifr. 5. At the neXt revolution the stud 11 is withdrawn andthe stud 12 advanced, as seen in Figs. 8 and 1.1, so that the other endof the shoe passes onto the stud 12, the shoe returning' to the firstposition and opening the gripers, whereby at the first revolution thepaper is taken in and at the next discharged. To insure the throwing ofthe paper f'rom the gripers onto the fly, I. arrange auxiliary iin gers13, which liel below the paper, so that the paper rests between thegripe-rs and the auxiliary fingers; and these are arranged upon thesha-ft h', as seen in Fig. 5, and are formed of wire orsimilar materialbent around the shaf't h', so that they are retained upon the shaft bytheir friction thereon to turn with the said shaft. A tail piece, 14, isformed on the said fingers 13, extending below the shaft. The iin gersoperate with the griper to take the paper, as seen in Fig. 6. 11i-henthe gripers commence to rise and carry it forward toward the fly L1, soas to insure t-he passage. ofthe paper onto the ffybeing the positionabout as denoted in Fig. (i-then the tail piece 14 ofthe fingers,striking a suitable top, arrests their further movement, and the gripe-ris turned away as the cylinder advances, leaving the fingers as denotedin broken lilies, Fig'. G. Suitable gauges for adjustnient of the paperare properly presented to the cylinders, and are arranged in the usualmanner. The iiy is operated by a cam, L3, through the lever L4r andsegment L5.

It is often desirable to prevent the hiking-cylinders coming in contactwith the stone. To do this I arrange the said inking-rolls so that theirshafts rest upon a bar, N, as seenV in the detached view, Fig'. l2, asimilar bar being arranged upon both sides and connected to arockshaft,N l, from which a lever, N2, extends to a position convenient for theoperator, as seen in Fig. 12, so that by depressing the said lever fromthe position in Fig. l2 to that in Fig. 13 the bar N is thrown forward,and the cams a upon the under side of the bar N in such movement passonto studs n2 and raise the' inking-rolls, as seen in Fig. 125.A Therolls are lowered. by withdrawing the bar N.

The ink-fountain is formed by a plate, 1'., and cylinder l1. In orde-rto clean the fountain or remove any foreign substance therefrom. it hasheretofore been necessary to remove the knife or plate entjrely from themachine, which necessitates a rea-djustment when it is repiaced-adifficult operation and one requiring great skill and no inconsiderableamount of time. To overcome these diiiiculties, I arrange the bladeiupon a shaft, t, as seen in Fig. 4, the said shaft being' parallel withthe axis of the cylinder Il, and so that the blade may be turned downand up into the position denoted in broken lines; and to adjust theblade I arrange a bar, if, (see Figs. 3 and 4,) the said bar pivoted soas to be turned out and down to the position denoted in Fig. 4; and inthe bar I arrange adjusting-screws s, (see Fig'. 3,) so that when theblade is turned against the cylinder and the bar i" under the blade the,blade may be adjusted bymeans of the said set-screws; then, when it isnecessary to open vthe fountain, turn out the bar, without changing theset-screws, and turn up the plate to the position denoted in brokenlines, and, when the purpose f'or which the fountain is opened isaccomplished, return the blade and pass the bar back into position, andthe same relative position of the blade is again insured.

To take impressions upon the stone, pass the copy between theimpression-cylinder and the stone, (the copy havin g been first preparedin the usual manner, in like manner as for printing.) It will beunderstood that, for transferring, both the inking and dampenin g rollsare removed from contact with the stone. While this will give a mostperfect transfer, it may, in some cases, be preferable to transfer bythe scraping process. 'lo do this I arrange a tympan, strained upon acarriage, beneath the cylinder, to which a move ment is impartedcorresponding to the cylinder, and upon this tympan the copy is placed;then, when the stone is presented, the copy passes over a scraper oftheusual construction, the said scraper being arranged so as to be operatedby a tog'- gle-joint, P, as seen in Figs. 3 and 4, which will produce animpression upon the stone. in the usual manner for commonlithographic-printin g presses.

The arrangement which I have described for the impression-cylinder toreceive the blank to cause the impression and then deliver the blank tothe ily, may be applied to many classes of printing-presses, and by suchconstruction the use of the tapes .is entirely avoided.

Other parts of my invention, as the construction of theinking-fountains, are alike applicable to other presses; I, therefore,do not wish to be understood as confining myself' to lithographic orplate printing. y

l claim as my inventiony l. The combination of the stone D and theholder E, arranged and made adjustable within the revolving frame F,substantially a s described, whereby the lsurface of' the stone may beset in proper relative position to the periphery of' the cylinder,substantially as set forth.

2. rIhe arrangement of the shoe 7 on the griper-shaft, the tworeciprocating studs 11 12 combined with the double-acting cam 13* tointroduce thc fingers alternately' to the operation of thegriper-shai't, substantially as set forth.

5. In combination with the shoe 7 011 the griper-shaft, constructed withprojections 8 S on opposite sides of the said shoe, and provided withthe V-shaped cam, the lever 9, arranged upon the head of' the cylinderand provided with a spring to force the said lever to act upon the saidcam to throw the said shoe to either of its two extremes, the twoextremes being limited by the said projections coming in contact withthe rim of' the cylinder, substantially as set forth.

4. The auxiliary fingers l, havingextensions 14, and attached byfrictional-spring pressure to the shaft h, in combination withgriping-tingers h, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. The arrangement of the cam 13, by which the gripers are operated,directly upon the sha-ft ofthe impression-oy]inder, so that the said camrevolves with the said impression-cylinder, as described.

6. In combination With the plate or blade i, arranged and operating asdescribed, the bar i', provided with screws to adjust the said plate i,and operating to support and release the said plate, substantially asdescribed.

7. In combination with the inking` or dampenng rolls, the auxiliary orgravitation rolls 4, ar-

ranged in the slots S", curved upward to bring the bearing of thegravitation rolls above the bearing of the inking or dampening rolls, sothat the gravitation-rolls Will force the inking or dampening rolls,arranged below the center ofthe cylinder, up against the surface of thecylinder, substan'tiallx7 as set forth.

EDWARD S. BOYNTON.

Witnesses:

J. H. SHUMWAY,

A. J. TiBBI'rs.

